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About

We are teens helping teens

A free and confidential 24-hour crisis, counseling, and referral line for youth.YouthLine is a peer-to-peer youth crisis and support service provided by Lines for Life—a non-profit dedicated to preventing substance abuse and suicide in Oregon. YouthLine operates a helpline that provides crisis support and referrals via phone, text, chat, and email. The helpline is answered by youth daily from 4-10pm and by adults at all other times.

YouthLine also operates a peer-supported outreach program to destigmatize mental health challenges, increase awareness for mental health and wellness, and encourage youth to reach out for help. YouthLine’s helpline and outreach programs are supported by our youth volunteer mentoring program, which builds skills and confidence around mental health and wellness.

Frequently Asked Questions

Teens reach out for support on a variety of topics and are able to talk with a trained peer crisis intervention specialist who can listen, relate, and empathize while discussing healthy coping skills and encouraging help seeking behavior.
The phone lines are open 24 hours a day. The helpline is answered by youth daily from 4-10pm. Outside of these hours, the phone lines are answered by adult volunteers from Lines for Life who also answer the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

YouthLine is confidential to a point. While YouthLine will never share conversations had on the lines, we are mandatory reporters. If a young person is unable to agree to safety for themselves or another person, or if abuse is occurring, YouthLine contacts other agencies to ensure the best support and safety for the young person in crisis. Only supervisors make calls to Child Protective Services and Emergency Medical Services.

Volunteers use aliases while on the line to ensure anonymity from potential classmates or peers. The volunteers on YouthLine attend school in the Portland Metro Area and it is important that they can focus on being teens when not in the office.

Volunteers on the YouthLine offer to have another volunteer check in with their contact the next day to offer ongoing support, ensure the teen followed through with any self-care and safety plans, and to check in about reaching out to their own safety network.

YouthLine fields over 10,000 contacts per year. Youth volunteers answer calls, texts, chats, and emails daily from 4-10pm and have an average of 23 contacts per day. From 10-4pm, YouthLine calls are answered by Lines for Life's adult crisis line volunteers who field an average of 7-9 youth calls per day.

YouthLine is a service of Lines for Life, a 501c(3) non-profit organization whose mission is to prevent suicide and substance abuse. YouthLine is primarily supported by private foundations, Multnomah County, and donations to Lines for Life.